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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Disaster

Last week it rained, and rained. Torrential downpours that lasted for hours. Everything flooded, trees fell over and driving became a combat sport.

It was also school holidays.

But that was not the worst thing. Oh goodness no.

You see I'd got my stash of seeds out, and instead of returning them to the shed I'd stacked them on a window-sill under the deep eaves of the house. Protected or so I thought. I glanced at the boxes a couple of times over the week, and decided they were fine, and would come to no harm.

How wrong I was.

A couple of days later, when the rain had stopped I went to put them away properly, only to discover that both boxes were half full of water. All my seeds, every single one, had been soaking for over two days.

Seed boxes - recycled huggies wipes boxes!

They'd turned into a horrible smelly sludgy mess. A few packets were okay, the commercial ones that were packed in foil. But alas most of mine were Diggers seeds, which come in a paper packet (though I think they've changed this recently).

Ew

So I carefully laid them out, and covered the wet seeds with a damp nappy (my cloth nappies never graced the bottom of any child, and now get used as tea-towels) to stop them drying out in the sun.

So many seeds

And then I got stuck into the garden. It took me three days, pulled every muscle I have, got sunburnt, dehydrated and overall pretty crappy tempered, but I did it.

Planted up every single vegie bed, got every single seed in the ground...

Covered in wire to stop the chooks digging up the lot if they escape

There is a mish-mash of everything. All the pea seeds got mixed up, so I don't know if they are snow, greefeast or dwarf. My crop rotation scheme is totally out the window and we shall be drowning in beans by spring.

I optimistically planted the cucumber and melon seeds. I doubt very much they'll survive winter, but I couldn't just throw them away, and maybe it'll be a mild one.

I'm actually glad about it. One of the things I lost in last year's fug was the garden, and I've been totally daunted about getting it back on track, what with the weeds and the clearing out that needed to be done.
So it was a good thing, my seed disaster. I reconnected with the garden, and already I'm out there every second I get a chance, inspecting and seeing if anything has sprouted yet.

I'm so glad you planted them! I was reading the start thinking "I hope you planted them and didn't just chuck them out", no matter what grows, at least you didn't totally waste the seed and it will be interesting to see what happens. I have been doing the same with old seed that is past its expiry date, just plant it somewhere and see how it goes! So I hope you will be investing in a plastic seed box :) happy gardening!